Optimum Design of Elliptical Pumping Chambers for Solid Lasers

Fundamental charts for designing optimum elliptical pumping chambers are obtained from numerical calculations which contain all the geometrical sizes of pumping lamps and laser rods and the reflectivity of walls. The coupling efficiency between the lamp and the laser rod is compared with that of cylindrical chambers. When 2 a / r R 72, where 2 a is the major axis of ellipse or the diameter of cylinders and r R is the radius of laser rod, elliptical chambers are approximated by the cylindrical. The lowest energy for laser action is about 85J in the present experiments with the elliptical chambers whose reflectivity is about 0.7.